I just read Amy’s article about the homeless around Santa Maria (“ Feb. 7).
A few things struck me. About “Julie”—26 years old, four kids, been out of work and homeless since 2006. Struggling to find a good rehab. She doesn’t appear to be struggling that hard, if she can sit at the same place every day and panhandle for money. She blames the recession. Right. How come 11 million illegal aliens can find work here, and don’t speak the language, but a native-born, legal, able-bodied resident can’t? I would say, as she said, her “choices” put her right where she is at. And if people don’t stop giving her money to sit right there, every day, she has no reason to ever stop.
Apparently, she isn’t too worried about getting her kids back; it would probably look better to protective services if she had a job and a place to keep them. Or you can just sit on the curb every day and hope someone gives you something. I guess they are; she isn’t starving.
The data about deaths of the homeless: 20 percent from alcohol, 27.5 percent from illicit substances. Nearly half are killing themselves with their addictions. Does that tell you anything about why they are where they are?
Have you seen the very old lady with the walker by FoodMax on North Broadway? Unbelievable. I’ve given her some money. One day recently, some middle aged guy—I would assume her son (?)—approached her and she gave him all her money. He stood there and counted it. And then left.
I was shocked. You put your mother out there to panhandle for you? Or even if it wasn’t his mother, taking money from an elderly lady? What a POS.
In my experience, for every mentally ill person out there on the streets who can’t work, at least twice as many choose to be there, who just don’t want to work and live like most of society chooses to live.
This article appears in Feb 14-21, 2013.